I'm a fairly new player to SWTOR but one thing I think would be fun to do would be to enter a flashpoint using 3 of your companion characters. I have a hard time with group finder where I have to wait awhile to get in a group and occasionally I get in a bad group that disbands before finishing or quitting at the start because we are not "equipped properly". Currently I am a Level 50 Jedi Shadow and I occasionally solo flashpoints just to see the story. If I could do a flashpoint with Qyzen, Tharan and Nadia I think it would be fun.

 

I enjoy playing with other players but a lot of the time I want to play for the great story telling but I am not interested in joining a Guild as I can't commit to the expectations as I can only play a little here and there.

 

Thank you

/vote for this - sometimes I just like to rp in my head and there aren't many times you can get your whole crew together... and they ARE supposed to be our crew... right?

This would keep the fun for a lot of players I totally agree there should be all companion groups in flashpoints and Heroic 4 person groups.

Does anyone remember when the two "Ms" stood for "massively muti-player"?

 

People complain and complain about how the game is "too single player" and then complain when they can't solo content specifically designed to be played with a group.

 

It's a terrible idea. The group finder doesn't take THAT long. DPS has to wait. That's the price. If it's a problem, roll tank or heals.

Does anyone remember when the two "Ms" stood for "massively muti-player"?

 

People complain and complain about how the game is "too single player" and then complain when they can't solo content specifically designed to be played with a group.

 

It's a terrible idea. The group finder doesn't take THAT long. DPS has to wait. That's the price. If it's a problem, roll tank or heals.

 

How exactly would this idea hurt?

I would like this but for only Reg FP, HM should need a team of players. On another note that was one of the big selling point for Guild Wars for me.

I would absolutely love this! I am crazy about the class quests where you kinda use all your crew but to be able to actually play through a whole flashpoint with all / some of them - priceless This will give an added incentive to gear them all up and present a challenge.

 

There are simple ways to make playing with other players (far) more profitable than solo-ing the same content and the mechanics are already in place.

 

Pretty dreams aside though, it would probably be a serious challenge for the player if the difficulty level of falshpoints is the same as now. While companions handle themselves decently most of the time they couldn't match the diversity of player actions / decisions in a fight and one would hardly be able to steer them all manually at the same time.

 

Seeing how some of the devs are, they are probably longing for this themselves but then the MMO concept of urging players to group for content is a rule and I would understand if they are reluctant to break away from it. I'd still be happy if they introduce / change some class quests to fully utilize more companions simultaneously.

Actually, I think a lot of people would hate it if it ever came to be. Why? because companion AI sucks - especially healers. I have done a number of heroic 4s and FPs with companions. The problem is that companions do not and cannot react well to fight mechanics: they stand in the fire, they hit the wrong target (unless you watch them like a hawk), they break CC, etc etc etc. As for healer companions, even in top flight gear, they do not do enough healing for a FP, not by a long shot - All of their abilities have cooldowns so they cannot chain cast to keep party members alive. So unless you play a healing class and let your companions do the tanking and dpsing, this is not feasible.

Does anyone remember when the two "Ms" stood for "massively muti-player"?

 

People complain and complain about how the game is "too single player" and then complain when they can't solo content specifically designed to be played with a group.

 

It's a terrible idea. The group finder doesn't take THAT long. DPS has to wait. That's the price. If it's a problem, roll tank or heals.

 

That actually wansn't what the OP was saying entirely. The OP was saying, while the wait was long, when he did get into the group for the FP, the group would quickly fall apart and he'd be back to square one. It's a valid concearn when, as you pointed out, it's a massively multi-player game. If your masses can't mass effectively, then a solution must be found or the masses will dwindle.

 

I personally like this idea for regular modes. It's hard to equip your companions with enough gear to really make them on par with another (equally geared) player anyway, so there's already a built in handicap. For heroic modes, I think I'd like to see the option disabled, but I'm kind of thinking many of the higher end HMs would be impossible with highly geared companions anyway (or at least I would hope so).

Actually, I think a lot of people would hate it if it ever came to be. Why? because companion AI sucks - especially healers. I have done a number of heroic 4s and FPs with companions. The problem is that companions do not and cannot react well to fight mechanics: they stand in the fire, they hit the wrong target (unless you watch them like a hawk), they break CC, etc etc etc. As for healer companions, even in top flight gear, they do not do enough healing for a FP, not by a long shot - All of their abilities have cooldowns so they cannot chain cast to keep party members alive. So unless you play a healing class and let your companions do the tanking and dpsing, this is not feasible.

 

That's not entirely true. While the companion AI is rather... blunt.. I know several tanks (on my old, dead server) that were soloing regular flashpoints with just their healbot, albeit a very well geared healbot. I can see the same holding true with well geared healing players with their well geared tanking companion, and to a lesser extent, similarly geared dps players and companions (assuming they wouldn't pull threat every 2 gcds). Furthermore, it's not about the effectiveness of the option, but rather the option in and of itself. Player like or dislike also has relatively little to do with it. If they hate it, they will find a group. If they like it, they'll find a way to make it work, or find a group anyway.

This is a popular request, I hope they consider it. It would let people go to a flashpoint anytime and take their time. Whether or not one player and three companions could get the job done on a normal flashpoint (don't make it available for hard mode), I'm not sure, but they could allow 4 companions to compensate.

 

 

• Solves spacebar conflicts, can go at your own pace.
  
• Solves not being able to find a group (was queued in finder for about 1.5 hours last night and nothing).
  
• Still need people groups for HMs.
  
• Would finally get some combat use out of our other companions. Most people use only 1 or 2.
  
• More of that all important "MMO busy work" for players: gearing up those unused companions.
  
• Shouldn't require a ton of development effort; companions already know how to behave in groups.
  

Edited November 20, 2012 by RAVM

I think it would be cool, but I also think the FP should be in a special mode for this, otherwise it could hurt groups trying to do the actual FP from being able to form, and maybe offer a different type of reward, like special companion gear that might even have set bonuses that actually do something for them. It could be an interesting way to develop the story/relationships between crew members.

This is long over due those idiots that say MMO means Massive multi player online haven't been waiting in a q for 45 minutes trying to get a group. The companions and story ends at 50 this would keep a lot of people from quiting the game.

+1 vote

 

I can understand that we only carry one comp in normal class story and other in-world quests. It was part of the design for them, I don't agree with it 100%, but I can understand and accept it.

 

But, I I would really like to take more than one comp, maybe even all of them on a FP-type of quest at some point. Aside from the few (yes, few) interactions they have in the ship, I would like to see more of how they interact.

 

Like

, it was fun. Let's have more of that.

 

And about the two M's in MMO...well, it's right. But, to me, this is more like KOTOR3 with some added Multi-player stuff, in the sense that I mostly solo all my characters (6 so far). My choice, I know, BW has to balance it out with all the other players, but I can always ask.